:: Friday, April 16, 2004 ::
Getting UnstuckThe past few months have been tumultuous at work. Actually, the past year has been filled with uncertainty, chaos and a good dose of paranoia and mistrust, thanks to some structural changes. I won't get into the details, but there are four marketing/communications offices all thrown together in one big room, partitioned into cubes and a few claustrophobic offices (for we illustrious managerial types). We've got writers, graphic designers, web designers, a videographer, and other staff of all mixes working in this tight environment, where if one person sneezes everyone else knows about it. There's also a good deal of tension in the room due to some staffing decisions, and although things are better now than they were six months ago, things could always be better.
So I was excited to receive my latest BzzAgent package in the mail Thursday. (Yes, I am a secret agent, a member of a clandestine outfit of marketeers.) The packet contained an advance copy of a new book, Unstuck -- and a couple of thingamagigs called "stuck-o-meters" that help people gauge whether they're stuck, and if so, how. I started reading the little book during my Stairmaster workout Thursday evening, and got halfway through it, discovering the root cause for some of the feelings of "stuckness" I get at work.
The book points out seven situations. For me, two in particular sort of, um, stick out from my perspective as one manager among four in this marketing group, and also in regard to the larger picture of the overall operation of the division and the university.
Directionless. "You're stuck because your team is all thrust, no vector. People are busy, but aren't necessarily effective. Everyone is obsessed with their to-do list, yet there is no "big picture" to guide their actions. Decisions are made with little context of the day -- let alone what tomorrow might bring."
Alone. "You're stuck because the team has lost its own religion. It used to feel like a close-knit unit, but somewhere along the way the sense of belonging was replaced by the haze of an identity crisis. Your crew lacks a culture to unite it, so it is far less than the sum of its parts."
The book's descriptions seem to nail the situation, at least from my perspective. Others on my team may feel otherwise -- they may not feel directionless or alone, but they may feel stuck in other ways.
This isn't to say that our offices aren't effective. Certainly, we're accomplishing a lot, but we've gone through a lot of change and disruption over the past year or so, and we have a lot of things to work through. I'm optimistic that this book might offer some ideas to help.
:: Andrew 10:42 + ::
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I notice Bill Buckner didn't make the list, Randy
But I must agree with your choices. On No. 1, though, shouldn't that be "chowdah"?
Now if I could only come up with 10 good reasons to be a Cardinals fan.
:: Andrew 16:27 + ::
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I wonder if Al Gore will protest?
Tim Berners-Lee, the so-called inventor of the World Wide Web, has received the first Millennium Technology Prize -- a million in cold, hard euro cash. That translates to $1.2 million in U.S. dollars.
If this is a true Millennium Technology Prize, then I guess we'll have to wait another thousand years for the next one.
:: Andrew 10:48 + ::
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This never would have happened with a Rio Nitrus
Let this be a lesson to you, iPod users. Via Eatonweb.
:: Andrew 07:37 + ::
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Which Bob Dylan song are you? Tangled Up In Blue
Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.
Via one of those LiveJournal blogs I found while searching for the most recently posted pictures by LiveJournal users.
:: Andrew 07:28 + ::
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:: Thursday, April 15, 2004 ::
Yet another reason to love the Internet
The Random Personal Picture Finder, which scours Google's images to bring us, um, random personal pictures.
But if teen angst is more your thing, check out the most recently posted images by LiveJournal users.
Links via memepool.
:: Andrew 07:25 + ::
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The bloggedy blog zeitgeist
Some of the strangest searches lead people to this blog. I just hope I'll soon get visitors here who are searching for "zeitgeist."
Here's a sampling of search terms in my referrals:johnny damon jesus t-shirts
adrian monk blog
"how to design shoes"
"culligan man" download sounds
very sexy string lingerie that shows everything (Wha wha what???)
matt foley motivational speaker
CHristina Silvas
Tibetan symbal for horse
Kierkegaard quote
how to write a music analysis paper on the song, Black Magic Woman by Santana
:: Andrew 14:08 + ::
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I hate theology
A tour of "the dark side of theology," with the Internet monk (I guess he's the only one?) as your tour guide.Christ didn't call theologians, he called disciples. Let's follow Jesus, not just talk about the two natures. He didn't establish a seminary or a library, but a church, which is a pretty down and dirty business that does a lot more than just stare at its confessions in wondrous rapture and awe. He didn't give the great debate assignment, but the great commission. We're on mission with a God who is doing great things in history. Or are we? Some of us are theologizing about ministry so much that we appear to be undermining ministry itself. It's a great commission to make disciples of all nations, not a great commotion about who can be more literal about the elements of the Lord's Supper.
Theology has an important role to play in everything the church says and does. But that role is a servant role, not the role of a bully who intimidates simple, obedient people from obeying and serving. This sort of bullying theology seems to fit right in with the Pharisees who never could get over Jesus' interest in healing and helping people on the Sabbath. They had theologized themselves to the point of having a God interested more in Sabbath rules than in helping people. They felt perfectly comfortable lecturing Jesus as an ignoramus, all the while walking on the other side of the street whenever they encountered the opportunity to minister. Full essay.
Found via TheologyGeekBlog.
:: Andrew 13:51 + ::
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What a wonderful Internet, part 2
Before the Internet, it used to take weeks and sometimes months to receive rejection notices for book proposals. Now, it only takes days.
Here's the most recent rejection of Jesus Calling, from yet another reputable Christian publishing house:Hi
We need to pass. This sort of project is generally a tough sell.
Thanks for letting us have a look.
A tough sell? A book about the theological underpinnings of punk rock, a tough sell?
I guess I shouldn't have included that nonsense about refusing to title my book Purpose-Driven Punk in the proposal.
That's okay. They'll be sorry. Oh, they shall rue the day. Just you wait and see.
:: Andrew 13:43 + ::
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:: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 ::
What a wonderful Internet, part 1
I've been listening to this album a lot over the past week, thanks to the Internet. Not just because I purchased the record online but mainly because I was influenced to buy it because one of the participants in this blog's recent compilation of best rock albums ranked it highly. He and I share some common interests in music, so I decided to find out more about this album and the group. Boy, I'm glad I did.
The Pixies' Doolittle came out during the dark time of my life, when I was cloistered deep in an evangelical subculture and trying to figure our just what was so evil about non-Christian music. There's a big, ugly gap in my knowledge of secular music, beginning around 1987 and continuing until 1990 or '91. As a neophyte in the faith who was walking out of some pretty cruddy sin and addition (um, I mean "addiction," of course), I had this compulsion to also get rid of a lot of other so-called "baggage" from my life. It actually helped me to focus for a season on more spiritual things until I could get on a bit firmer footing.
But anyway. Had it not been for the Internet and the network of friends I've been able to develop through it, I probably would not have met David Hopkins. And I probably would have never been introduced to Pixies music.
:: Andrew 13:39 + ::
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Communications 101
I love the advice this sorority woman gave her sisters in an email about donating blood in order to win a blood drive competition at apparently all costs:I dont care if you got a tattoo last week LIE. I dont care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE. Recent peircings? LIE
Glad to see the up-and-coming generation of leaders are learning effective communications strategies that will serve them well in business, government and life in general.
:: Andrew 11:11 + ::
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A post-Easter reflection
This passage from a writing by Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt articulates what I think I've been trying to say about the crucifixion of our selves to Christ.It is not enough to celebrate Easter and say “Christ is risen.” It is useless to proclaim this unless at the same time we can say that we have also risen, that we have received something from heaven. We must feel appalled when the tremendous events that took place, the death and resurrection of Jesus, are proclaimed again and again and yet actually nothing happens with us. It has no effect.
From Bruderhof Communities.
:: Andrew 09:08 + ::
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:: Monday, April 12, 2004 ::
Your own, personal Jesus?"When Mel Gibson responded to critics of his blockbuster The Passion of the Christ by saying they had a 'problem with the four Gospels,' not with his film, he was staking a claim to authenticity: My Jesus is the real one, not yours.
"But it's not just Mel. Everyone claims their Jesus is the 'real' one, the only authentic Christ unperverted by secular society or religious institutions. The best-selling fiction book The Da Vinci Code, which posits among other things that Jesus fathered a child by Mary Magdalene, styles itself as a fact-based account of the 'real' Jesus, who has been covered up by a Vatican conspiracy. Academics who seek evidence for the Jesus of history attempt to peel away layers of the Gospel narratives until the genuine Jewish prophet is revealed. Nowadays, even nonbelievers assert a superior understanding of who the actual Jesus really was and what he stood for.
"Why can everyone from atheists to Zoroastrians lay claim to knowledge of the real Jesus? Because there are so many of him." Continue...
From Slate, via Thunderstruck.
:: Andrew 08:12 + ::
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Suffering and the "flesh"
Well I breezed through Lent with nary a concern this year. Mainly, because I chose to ignore the whole Lent business this time around. I skipped the whole lectio divina business -- it's so last year -- and pretty much indulged in whatever my fleshly heart desired (in moderation, of course). I mean, I bought myself a Rio Nitrus on Good Friday, for heaven's sake! How much more self-indulgent can one be?
But, Nitrus or not, I've been pondering the connection between suffering and the Christian faith, and how little suffering goes on in what passes for Christianity in America today. I certainly haven't experienced any suffering because of my faith.
What has drawn me to this issue of suffering? As I said, I more or less skipped Lent, the annual season of pilgrimage into the realm of suffering for many of us. And I haven't even seen The Passion of the Christ, so that can't be it. Actually, it began through a chance encounter with a Greek Orthodox monk's writings, and it occurred via this blog.
A reader of my punk chapter, posted here recently, left a link in the comments form that led me to this writing about a Russian Orthodox monk named Father Seraphim Rose. And this has shaped my thinking in recent days. In particular:In his journal, Fr. Seraphim wrote: "Let us not, who would be Christians, expect anything else from it than to be crucified. For to be Christian is to be crucified, in this time and in any time since Christ came for the first time. His life is the example--and warning-- to us all. We must be crucified personally, mystically; for through crucifixion is the only path to resurrection. If we would rise with Christ, we must first be humbled with Him--even to the ultimate humiliation, being devoured and spit forth by the uncomprehending world.
"And we must be crucified outwardly, in the eyes of the world; for Christ's Kingdom is not of this world, and the world cannot bear it, even a single representative of it, even for a single moment. The world can only accept Antichrist, now or at any time.
"No wonder, then, that it is hard to be a Christian--it is not hard, it is impossible. No one can knowingly accept a way of life which, the more truly it is lived, leads the more surely to one's own destruction. And that is why we constantly rebel, try to make life easier, try to be half-Christian, try to make the best of both worlds. We must ultimately choose--our felicity lies in one world or the other, not in both.
"God give us the strength to pursue the path of crucifixion; there is no other way to be a Christian."
Ouch!
Fr. Saraphim's words have led me to ponder a few passages from Paul's writings. The first comes from Romans chapter 8: "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory" (verses 16-17). Here's a snippet that has been taken out of context many times, particularly by those who wish to preach a gospel of prosperity and blessing without the suffering of the cross. I've heard the first part of that scripture quoted countless times, but usually the last phrase -- the one about sharing in Christ's sufferings -- is omitted.
Related to that is another scripture from Romans 8: "[I]f Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."
A third passage from Paul's writing is from Philippians 3:10: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death."
So, I've been wondering: How much do I really want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection? Enough to share in his sufferings?
It's a question I've asked myself over and over lately. But I don't like the answer I keep getting.
:: Andrew 10:35 + ::
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Simon Dawes, 
